It's time for me to brag on my supporters.

Not only have I been blessed with the funding I needed, but I also have an army of prayer warriors at my side.

This, I would argue is even more important to my success than funding.

One of the things the Lord has been teaching me on the race (and before the race) is the power and importance of prayer.

Before I left for my trip I sought as much wisdom as possible from those who have gone before me- both from people who went on the race, but even more so from the more experienced generations who have spent significant time in ministry.

I got to hear lots of stories from cautionary to awe inspiring.

One that I find myself often thinking about is this:

A woman went on an 8 month missions trip, probably when she was about my age, maybe a little older. When she first got there she was energized and excited about what she was doing. However after a short period of time she sunk into a dark depression and overwhelming exhaustion. She didn't feel that she was making any difference and she didn't have the energy to go out and do the things she was there to do. This went on for months. Then, around about the 6^th month, she suddenly had all of her original energy and enthusiasm back. She remembered why she had come. This was her calling. The Lord was pouring out his blessings on her and her ministry.

Now this was back before the digital age we now live in (where I can sit in an Airbnb in a tiny neighborhood in Indonesia and write a blog for you to read), and part of the structure of this program was that you had someone back home who would send out support letters for you at the halfway point of the trip to update friends and family and remind them to pray for you. This woman didn't find out until she got home, that something had happened with the letters, that they had been delayed slightly. They hadn't actually been delivered to her supporters until about the 6^th month. She could trace the delivery of the letters back exactly to the point in her trip where she was suddenly renewed and revitalized. *

Now here is a story of my own:

I have really been wanting to get into running. I am absolutely not a runner, but both of my sisters are, and I really want to be. The best time to start is now, so I've been trying to find places and times that I can get myself in some tennis shoes and out the door (none of that “when I get home from the race” nonsense, even though it's sooo tempting). The place we are staying here in Indonesia is a very quiet [post apocalyptic] neighborhood, with not a lot going on, and some good streets for running. One morning several of us decided to get up early and go for a run before it got too hot. It turned out to be a perfect morning. It was beautiful- nice and cool and raining ever so slightly. We all got our headphones and set off. 

Not too far down the road I rounded a corner and was caught off guard by a mud puddle. My legs flew out from under me and I went straight down. It was not a matter of slipping around almost catching my balance or anything like that. No, I fell hard. Liv was running behind me and she said I fell so hard that she expected me to have a broken arm and/or get up covered in blood.

Instead, I went “nice!” and immediately got back up to keep running, no worse for the wear. The only misfortunes were that my headphones had broken (somehow having taken the brunt of the fall) and the left half of me was covered in mud.

Something interesting about prayer: sometimes you can see it's effects immediately and irrefutably. I've seen immediate answers to prayers both big and small, everything from people being healed of lifelong afflictions to [relatively unimportant] lost objects being found.

Other times however, there is no way to know when prayers and events are directly correlated. For example, take prayers for safety on the road. Many people drive every day without the protection of prayer, but roads have also claimed many lives. When you pray for safety on the road, and then arrive safely, one could argue that of course, your prayer has been answered. But there is no way to know if you would have otherwise gotten into a terrible car accident had you not prayed.

Due to the complex nature of prayer and the time-space-continuum (we can talk about prayer and time travel another day), there are some things that we can't and won't know for sure on this side of eternity. Was it because of my prayer warriors back home that I don't have a broken arm right now? Hard to say. In second grade I broke my arm on a much softer fall. What I do know for certain is that I have been thoroughly covered in prayer, and that things have gone well in situations where the odds were against us.

So this one is a big big thank you to my prayer warriors. Thank you for your words of advice and encouragement, your wisdom and stories, and, most importantly, your prayers.

Without you.. well,

who knows?

Much Love and God Bless,

-Hattie

*quick footnote: it's been a while since I heard this story, and while I did get permission to share it, I apologize if I've gotten any of the details wrong. I promise the heart and point (the truest truths) of the story have been carefully and accurately preserved.